Locked To You
by blue-glass-boat
Summary: "One of the other students was in here just a while ago with the same problem. Now, what was his name?" Clary felt dread collecting in the pit of her stomach, weighing her down like she'd had rocks for breakfast. "It wouldn't happen to be Jace Lightwood, would it?" When Clary and Jace's locks get swapped, the search for the right code ends in two surprising confessions from Jace.


**AH (all human), one shot! This is an idea I've had for a very long time, so I finally sat down and wrote it. For anyone reading ENDLESS IMPOSSIBILITIES, that story will be updated very shortly. Also, I'm very open to constructive criticism, so please review. Thanks for reading!**

Clary spun the dial to her lock for the second time. Three times to the right, come to rest on eighteen. Once to the left, passing eighteen for twenty-seven, then straight to five. She tugged at it, expecting to feel the familiar give of the mechanism, but it stayed fast. Frustrated, she tried again. And once more. Each time, the lock stayed maddeningly still.

The hallways were emptying out, leaving Clary and her broken lock to themselves. As she looked up and down the corridor for someone who might be able to help her, she caught a flash of gold.

Jace. Sauntering in late like he owned the building with not a hair out of place. Why couldn't he just be as kind as he had been-

Clary made an exasperated noise and searched through her bag for her phone. Maybe she could call Izzy to come and fix it. After all, she was the one who had swept into the locker beside Clary's on the first day of school and decided to help her out with the then-confusing lock.

She kept rifling through her bag, waiting for her hand to come in contact with the familiar cool surface.

Trying to ignore the obnoxious amount of noise that Jace was making a few lockers down, she heaved off the bag and dumped its contents onto the floor. Searching through old drawings, schoolbooks and a few pens she couldn't see her phone.

"Great," she muttered. "Fan-freaking-tastic."

"Do you need to borrow something, Annie?" Isabelle's adoptive brother towered over her.

Clary scowled up at him, annoyed with herself for thinking of that day yet again. "I _think_ you know my name, Jace, but if you don't, you're a lot dumber than I thought."

His jaw clenched. "Annie, after the little red head orphan?" He smirked. "Don't tell me you haven't the film."

She glowered. "I don't think I have, actually." She said pointedly. Bastard. They'd watched it together, _that day_ , when Izzy was late getting home. It was the one time she thought he might be a decent person.

His eyes flashed. "Pity. Anyway, I came over to ask if you needed to borrow something. A phone?"

Clary narrowed her eyes. "Why are you offering to help me?"

"I can't offer to do something out of the goodness of my heart?" Jace sounded wounded.

She snorted. "Maybe if you _had_ goodness in your heart."

"I guess that's that then." Jace turned away.

"Wait!" Clary hated herself more and more every second. "Could I- Could I borrow your phone?"

He didn't turn back around. "Maybe if I had some goodness in my heart. But apparently, I have none." She didn't have to see his face to know that his lip was curling.

"Thanks anyway." Clary snapped, throwing all of her stuff back into her bag,

"No problem, Annie."

She stormed off and rerouted through the hallways to avoid the direction that he was going in. Her face felt hot with annoyance, her fists clenched involuntarily.

After she'd cooled down a little, she went to the administration buildings. Surely they could fix her lock situation.

"Hi, Clary." The receptionist smiled at her warmly. "How can I help you?"

She felt herself relaxing with the cool hiss of the office air conditioning. "I can't seem to open my lock. I've tried a few times, but the combination just isn't working."

The lady frowned. "One of the other students was in here just a while ago with a similar problem. Now, what was his name?"

Clary felt dread collecting in the pit of her stomach, weighing her down like she'd had rocks for breakfast. "It wouldn't happen to be Jace Lightwood, would it?"

She beamed. "That's the one! Maybe your locks got swapped somehow. If you just track him down, I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'll get his schedule up for you." As she squinted at the computer screen, Clary felt her newfound calm slip away. To run into Jace was one thing, but to intentionally seek him out? That was practically hell.

"It says here that he should be in Latin right now."

Clary frowned. "Latin? But that's an elective for people who actually want to work."

The receptionist chuckled. "Jace's marks are quite high. He did come second in your grade when you were sophomores."

"Thanks for your help." She shook her head. Obviously, this dumb jock persona that Jace pulled on was an act. But why?

Clary went straight to his Latin class, knocking on the door, only to find him absent. She thanked the teacher and wondered where else to look. With her newly discovered information, the library might actually be a good bet. The school had an amazing one, with a soaring domed ceiling and books on anything you could imagine. She had never pictured Jace hanging out there before, but she never though he'd enroll in Latin, either.

The door creaked open, the old building protesting as she attempted to navigate through it. The librarian wasn't behind the desk. She wasn't all that surprised. Conscious of Hodge's habits, she knew he liked to pop out for a cup of tea in the lulls.

Her idea seemed like quite a good one at first, but she had forgotten the sheer enormity of the place. There were so many nooks and crannies, levels filled with chairs and desks for working. She might never find him.

"Clary?" A surprised voice echoed from a few floors above.

She looked up, relieved. "Jace!"

He disappeared from view for a moment, steps resounding from the staircase. "Why the excitement? I thought you would be happy to see the back of me."

"I think our locks got swapped." She said. "I was wondering if you wanted yours back. Also," she looked at him closely. "Latin?"

He shrugged. "What of it?"

"About a million things, starting with why on earth would _you_ do it?" At his flinch she startled, realizing how harsh her question might have seemed. "I mean, not that you're not smart enough, because you obviously are. I found out about how you came second last year. Why would you hide something like that? It's amazing. There are so many people in our grade, and you beat nearly all of them." She took a deep breath, stopping her crazed babbling.

Jace looked amused. "Thanks, I guess."

"No worries, I guess." She said softly. Noticing not for the first time how his hair curled close to his neck, the golden colour looking soft. She wondered what it be like to run her fingers through it, to-

She cut her thoughts of suddenly. This was Jace Lightwood. Aside from the fact that they hated each other, he had a reputation for going through girl after girl for cheap hookups.

She was not going to be one of his hopeless groupies.

With that thought, she stepped away from him- how had they managed to get so close?- and said in a somewhat strangled voice, "We'd better try and switch our locks back."

"Right," he looked confused. "Of course. Let's go now, before the bell rings."

"Yep, sounds good." She backed out of the library, nearly slamming into one of the stone pillars on the way.

They walked to their lockers in silence, Clary casting her mind around desperately for something to say. "How's your morning been?" She blurted.

"Pretty good. I've spent it reading and talking to beautiful girls, so it rates high on my list of desirable school mornings."

She sagged a little. Of course he'd been talking to 'beautiful girls'. That was practically a given.

"In fact, there's this one girl-"

"Please, spare me the details about your latest escapade." She cut him off.

Something flickered across his face, too fast for her to catch. "What do you want to talk about, then."

She gestured randomly. "Locks getting switched. How could this happen? Our lockers are far enough from each other that we couldn't have picked it up by mistake."

"It's a bit strange, for sure. But not totally out of the realm of possibility."

Clary snorted. "Because my arms are long enough to just reach over a few meters and grab your lock."

Jace offered her a radiant grin. "I'm glad you brought it up, Shorty, because I wasn't going to say anything until you did."

She shoved him good-naturedly, wondering at the situation. _Who would have thought, Jace Lightwood and I actually getting along?_

Jace took a deep breath. "Actually, Clary, there's something I've been wanting to tell you."

She turned to him questioningly. Before she could say anything, he leant down and pressed his mouth to hers. She gasped, shocked. Almost too quickly, he pulled back.

Breathless, she touched her tingling lips. "What was that?"

"I just- I just-" Jace without his composure was something that Clary had never seen. Something inside her loosened. "I just wanted to do that once, before it all came crashing down. I've been in love with you for years, Clary, and I'm sorry I screwed it up after we watched that film. I was stupid, and we were only fifteen, and-" He cut himself off. "I've cursed myself every day since then that I didn't take my chance."

"Why all the insults?" Clary's mind was whirling, trying to figure out the turnaround. "Why the years of acting like you hated me?"

"I didn't hate you. I hated _me_ ," he said, miserable. "I don't expect that anything will come out of this, but I needed to tell you because we're leaving."

"Leaving? Who's leaving?" She couldn't process so much information.

"All of us. Alec, Izzy, Max, Robert, Maryse and I. We're moving out of the state."

She sunk to the floor. "What?" She whispered. The Lightwoods were such a big presence in her life. How could she go about it without them?

Now that Jace had started talking, he couldn't seem to stop. "I asked Izzy to help me tell you. I guess this was her inspired idea." He smiled a crooked smile, revealing his chipped tooth. "I can't apologise enough for the way I've behaved," he said, the smile disappearing. "I've been an idiot, and it took this move to make me see what I needed to do."

She sat on the grimy floor in the middle of her school hallway, and her world cracked, changed, reformed. The Lightwoods were moving.

Love.

Moving.

Love.

Moving.

Gone.

The feelings that she'd kept pent up for Jace, who was always unattainable, came rushing out from behind the wall she'd built. He was crouching on the floor beside her, this boy who loved her.

"Clary?" He looked worried. "Say something."

She did one better. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him. Fire ignited itself in her veins, racing up and down her body. His hair tangled in her fingers, soft as she'd imagined. Short, gasping breaths escaped his mouth when she moved away a little, and it occurred her that she'd never seen it before. Jace, low on air.

She whispered. "What's going to happen?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. But we'll figure it out."


End file.
